American Go E-Journal

EURO TOURNEY UPDATES: Hong Seul-ki 7D won the November 1-2 Groningen tournament in The Netherlands. Rudi Verhagen 5D took second place. The new venue featured several adjacent small bars in the old center of town and ’09 Euro Congress co-organiser Réné Goedhart 3D smilingly acknowledged that “It was my idea to test these pubs as a possible venue for unofficial evening lightning tourneys during next year’s European Championship. It worked very well. We can easily have a hundred people here for an exciting side event in town.” In other recent European tournaments, Rudi Verhagen 5D (NL) won the mid-October ‘Bamboo’ tourney in Bochum, Germany, besting Matthias Verwey 4D, while Mark Ostendorf 8K was the only other player to remain undefeated. A week later, Jin Zou 6D won in his hometown Leipzig 5-0 ahead of countryman Yi Zhang 4D, also of Leipzig. Only Andreas Melzer 15K won all his games as well. Both tourneys attracted some 50 participants. Another weekend later, in Berlin with 68 players, Bernd Schütze 5D took home the 3rd Japanese Ambassadors Cup with a clean slate, ahead of Manja Marz (left, in purple) 4D from Leipzig. The latter did not lose in Berlin, though she did not play all rounds. She also did well in the German Pair Go Championship: In St. Augustin ten pairs took part and three of them tied for the podium with 4-1. Opponent’s points decided the final outcome: 1st: Olga Silber 1K – Benjamin Teuber 6D (Hamburg); 2nd: Manuela Marz 4D – German Go Federation President Michael Marz 3D (Leipzig); 3rd: Judith Conradi 2D – Michael Budahn 3D. Click here for full reports (in German). - reported by Peter Dijkema, European E-Journal Corresponden

AMSTERDAM YOUTH TOURNEY: The Autumn Kids Championship of Amsterdam took place on October 31, with twelve kids under 12 participating, many of them pairs of brothers or sisters. In the first kids tourney, held last Spring, identical twins Nelson and Mozes van der Kar, now 10, had done well, as had Simone Admiraal, 11. After four games at the Autumn event, Nelson looked likely to repeat his Spring success, with a come-from-behind victory against his twin brother in the 4th. However, he then lost to 7-year-old Yuki de Groot, who with his 5-year-old sister Aya were the only participants from outside Amsterdam, all the way from Rijswijk, some 40 miles way. “Yuki started to play only six months ago”, explained his proud father Ger. That left three players leading with 4-1. Of the leaders, only Simone and Yuki hadn’t met yet, but their play-off didn’t clarify the lead and in the end, TD Leo Dorst declared the three as equal winners. With only one winner’s cup available, Dorst awarded it to Yuki, as “the youngest of the winners; also he traveled the farthest, so he can take this cup home, while Simone and Nelson will receive their copies later.” All the kids got prizes for taking part and had a happy Halloween kick-off. - report/photos by Peter Dijkema